Yolds and expectations

As yolds, we are not just any group of old people, we are challenging the traditional expectations of the retired as people that will disrupt consumer, service, and financial markets.

We are one of the fastest-growing groups of customers of the airline business. We are vital to the tourism industry because we spend much more when taking a foreign holiday, than younger adults. We are also changing education. Harvard has more students at its Division for Continuing Education (for mature and retired students) than it does at the university itself. And, because of the importance of pensions, we are transforming insurance companies from passive distributors of fixed annuities to financial-service providers for customers who want to manage their pension funds more actively.

Many who are out of sync with reality (some bosses and many hr departments) think productivity falls with age, but studies of truckmaking and insurance firms in Germany suggest older workers have if anything, slightly above-average productivity. The research also shows that teams of workers from multiple generations are the most productive of all. Our society will be better off because public spending on health and pensions will be lower expected, as people work longer, need less medical care.

An ideal state, but the changes will happen over time, the first and one of the most important is public attitudes towards older people and the expectation that 60-somethings ought to be putting their feet up and quietly retiring into the background. Yolds continue to work even though many companies discriminate against older workers by offering training only to younger ones, or by limiting part-time employment and job-sharing. We through sheer numbers will demand that companies become more age-friendly and, in the process, help change attitudes towards ageing itself.

We vote and we will not be tolerant of government policies that work against our best interests or politicians who do not take us seriously. So, policies will change, too. The retirement age will rise to give people the option to work or to retire as many people need to or want to work longer.

This Pandemic has shown us that we can work together to lower the curve and protect ourselves from getting sick. I think this will lead to a change in health spending. Most diseases of ageing are best met with prevention and lifestyle changes. But only about 2-3% of most countries’ health-care spending goes on prevention. That will have to rise because although the yold cohort will constitute a bulge of comparative health and activity over the next decade, by 2030 they will hit 75. If we as a cohort have not stayed healthy, then the research shows that we will decline very quickly. Many economics will not be ready to treat us because the medical system will be able to cope. If we have policies in place that help us stay healthy and prevent many of the diseases of ageing, and we as a cohort stay healthy to 75 then the rate of decline of yolds will be slower and as we flatten the curve the medical system will be able to cope